Press Conference in Indianapolis (1964, September 3)
| Q: "Where do you gentlemen stand as far as the draft is concerned in England?" John: "About five eleven." (laughter) Ringo: "It comes from that door over there." John: "Oh, you mean the Army. We all miss it. and if we didn't, we'd all hide in the south of Ireland." Q: "How closely was your script of the movie, 'A Hard Day's Night' scripted? How much of it did you fellas ad-lib or wing?" Paul: (long pause) "Uhhhhhhhh..." (laughter) John: "Most of it was script. You can tell the script bits. They're all sort of semi-Irish/Welsh things. Most of it was script. Alot was ad-libbed." Q: "I'd like to direct this question to John and Paul. Out of all the compositions that you've written, which do you..." John: (anticipating the question) "We don't know." Paul: "Which is what?" John: "Which is your favorite." Q: "Which is the best?" John: "'Land Of Hope and Glory' was one of my favorites." (laughter) Q: "Who decides who's going to sing the lead of a particular song you may do?" John: "It depends on alot of things. If I write.... If we write 'em together, he sings higher than me so basically I normally sing lead and he sings harmony. If I can't make it he sings on-tone." (laughter) Q: "Do you write alot of the songs in the hotel room?" John: "Well, yeah." Q: "Ringo?" Ringo: "Yes?" Q: "It's rumored that you have written some things for symphony orchestras." Beatles: (laugh) Ringo: "I don't even write letters." (laughter) Q: "As you're confined to your room all day, what do you do?" George: "Oh! Tennis and waterpolo." (laughter) Paul: "Football. Cricket." Ringo: "We just sit 'round." Paul: "Sit 'round, read, tell jokes, play Monopoly." Ringo: "Watch television." Paul: "Smoke." John: "Hide from the security. Things like that." Q: "Does it get boring?" Ringo: "No." John: "No, it's great." Q: "If you could just walk down the street without anyone recognizing you, what would you like to do?" John: "Well, we used to do that with no money in our pockets, so there's no point in it. It's a dead loss." (laughter) Q: "Fellas, what's your opinion of the Animals, the group with the big song?" Beatles: "Great!" Paul: "Very good group. They're nice fellas, too." Q: "Have you seen them before? Have you seen them perform?" Beatles: "Yeah." George: "In England." Paul: "and they're nice fellas from Newcastle, you know." Ringo: "Good lads." Q: "Political question!" Paul: "Alright." John: "Great." Ringo: "Get out!" Q: "What's your favorite... Goldwater or Dowdy?" John: "MacMillan." (laughter) John: "God save the queens." Q: "John? Have you written a book?" John: "Yeah?" Beatles: (laugh) Ringo: (chuckling about the reporter asking the question) "Who IS she?" George: "Oh god." John: "Yes, I have!" Q: "What is it called?" John: (pauses) "...Uhh, 'In His Own Write,' you see." Paul: "So he's gotta be deep. Something deep coming up any minute." Q: "What's it about?" John: "Rubbish!" (laughter) John: (half-jokingly) "You should buy it. That's the least you can do after saying that." Q: (snide tone) "Why don't you send me an autographed copy?" John: "I can't be bothered." Q: "Do you fellas have a favorite American singing group?" Paul: "...favoriteSSS." John: "We've got so many." Paul: "American colored groups." George: "The Detroit sound. All of the people from Detroit we like." John: "Nearly all of them." Q: "What do you think of our American group called the Beach Boys?" George: "Great." Paul: "I like them very much, yeah. Very good harmonies." John: "We've never seen any of them Live, but they all make good records." Q: "Ringo, what's your favorite color?" Ringo: "Umm..." Q: "They say all sorts of stuff. What is it really?" John: (to Ringo) "What do they say about you?" Ringo: "I don't know what do they say about me?" George: "What is it, Ringo??" Ringo: "Black, I'll say! What's yours?" (laughter) Q: "What do you do with all the presents you get?" John: "What presents?" (laughter) Ringo: "We ship most off them back to England." Paul: "Well, any of the ones that we can't keep, or the ones that are impractical, like a fifty-foot cake that we could never eat." John: "We've never had a fifty-foot cake!!" Paul: "No, I'm exaggerating!!" (laughter) Paul: "...a three-foot cake, you know. We give it to a charity or hospital or something." Q: "Paul, what was your reaction to the movie (A Hard Day's Night) after you had seen it yourself?" Paul: "Umm, I don't know, you know. With us being in it, I just watched us all the time. So the first time I just didn't think anything. But after a bit I just thought we weren't very good, but that the director was very good. I think he's a very good director, but we weren't much good." Q: "Do you think you will ever be invited behind the Iron Curtain?" John: "If they've got enough Rubles, or whatever they've got." (laughter) Q: "I understand they do not have an income tax." John: "Well, they've got no money, either." (laughter) Source: Audio recording of the press conference |